A Brief History of Gaming's Dumbest Lawsuits

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Bethesda's shenanigans are just the latest in a long line of legal asshattery.

By Mitch Dyer

Last week, Bethesda's lawyers laid down the law with Minecraft developer Mojang. That law, however, is a bit of a sticky subject, particularly with Mojang founder Markus Persson. His small studio's next game, Scrolls, allegedly violates Bethesda's existing trademark for "The Elder Scrolls." This is, of course, utter nonsense.

Really, The Elder Scrolls is not the name most of us think of when discussing Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. The brand-recognition isn't with the series as a whole, but its world and the games taking place in it. Persson also noted this in his blog entry. This doesn't make it any less of a legal breach, if that's what this truly is, and it'll take some time to see how this silly situation pans out. Regardless, for those of us who just love games, this sad state of affairs is a big ol' bummer.

This is far from the first of the gaming industry's dumbest lawsuits. The recent history of gaming litigations is equal parts perplexing, confusing, and downright hilarious. Let's take a look back and reflect on the best of the worst legal shenanigans in recent memory.

TIM LANGDELL v. EVERYONE

Tim Langdell, founder of Edge Games, really loves the word "edge." So much so, in fact, that he tried his hardest to own the noun/verb. Langdell got the trademark and then dedicated a page on Edge Games' website to licensees.

Langdell later started suing folks across the industry for daring to use his word. He threatened Mobigame, developer of the iPhone game called Edge, if it didn't either change the title or give his company a cut of the profits. Mobigame changed the title a few times before determining Langdell couldn't enforce his will on the App Store, and it was released as Edge once again. He took to Electronic Arts as well; Mirror's Edge supposedly crossed the line. When all was said and done, Langdell was stripped of his trademark. The guy even stepped on some editorial toes when he decided that Future's magazine Edge, which licensed the name from Langdell in the 90s, had a logo so cool he'd take it for himself. Future also took him down in court.

This is the greatest case against the ownership of a common word. Bethesda should take note of Langdell's idiocy and track record.

GATE FIVE v. BEYONCE

Put yourself in Gate Five's shoes. Your life is already in the ruts because your small developer is making a music game based on Beyonce. Suddenly, the famous songstress demands an unreasonable amount of money your company can't afford and the project crumbles. You and 69 other employees are out of jobs and you'll never have anything to show for your work. Also, it's the week before Christmas.

Gate Five is in the process of suing the pop star for $100M in damages (basically, the money they assume the released game would have pulled in) after ignoring her contract for the ill-fated Starpower: Beyonce game. We heard about this in April, and everything's been mum since on this sad little lawsuit.

SILICON KNIGHTS v. EPIC GAMES

The battle between Silicon Knights and Epic Games has been raging for nearly five years, and it's a hot mess smothered in conspiracy theory. The short version of this huge story goes like this: Silicon Knights accused Epic Games of sabotaging the Unreal Engine 3 for other developers licensing the tech. This, in turn, purportedly hurt the quality and slowed down the development of Too Human. Epic said "nah, of course not," and it's been a back-and-forth tug-of-war since 2007. It's been a vicious spat, and SK's Denis Dyack has been vocal in public about how horrible he feels his studio was treated.

Each side has such strong arguments and evidence that we'll see this go before a federal jury. It's a complicated case with a lot of contradictions, and it'll be one of the more interesting dramas to come out of the industry.

Interesting though it may be, this is still a proper-dumb situation. If Dyack and co. come out on top, it shows that Epic is a big, bad bully. If the Gears of War dev wins the case, Silicon Knights looks like a fibbing child. Either way, we're going to think less of one of these teams.